In 1994 Kevin Carter, a South African freelance photographer, took a haunting photograph depicting a starving Sudanese girl crawling towards a feeding center, located a kilometer away. Also in the picture was a vulture waiting for the child to die so it could eat it.

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The picture shocked the whole world. No one knows what became of the child, including the photographer, who left the place soon after capturing the moment. The photograph won a Pulitzer Prize and was published in the New York Times.

Three months later, Carter committed suicide due to depression.

This is today’s world: A sad happening in Sudan, captured by someone who has no relation to those involved in the happening, and it takes him no time in spreading the news and the images of that happening all around the world.

People living thousands of miles away from the scene, see it, feel sad about it; some even intend to act, but fail to act.

Life is so fast; events are so quickly happening and every one has so many things to achieve in such a short span of time, these days, that it barely allows us to think about others. Yes there are people who need us, our attention, help and support; but than we have our own targets, deadlines, ambitions and interests; to be at the top we need to pursue our personal goals, corporate objectives national interests; we need to ignore certain facts in order to achieve certain objectives.

This is the mindset of today’s man living in the global village and in the age of globalization. Yes! There are variations and degrees, just as there are quick learners and slow learners but the trend is becoming same all over the globe. In the following we shall discuss the ongoing process of globalization with emphasis on the following questions: What is globalization and its significance? Who are the stakeholders in this process? Does the process is leading to a better world? Is it going to help promote global harmony and integration; is it going to help develop all societies and countries, so as to eliminate poverty, hunger, disease and other ills the human being are faced with; or is it going to reduce the prevailing income inequalities?

Khalid Rahman

Source: Essays on Muslims and the Challenges of Globalisation, Institute of Policy Studies, Islamabad. Republished with permission.